For Dan Rector, the academic learning comes during the school day and the magic starts after the last bell rings.
Rector, 17, is a member of the Ballard High School Drama Program which rehearses at the end of the school day. He just finished a demanding lead role in "On The Razzle," and is now rehearsing for the spring production of "Guys and Dolls."
Not all his creativity happens on the stage.
Under the bright lights of the Tacoma Dome, the Ballard Beavers concluded one amazing season by defeating Snohomish 52-44 and taking home the fourth place 4A State Basketball Tournament trophy on Saturday.
The Beaver girls compiled a 24-3 record this season, while winning the Surf N'Slam Tournament in San Diego, tying for a share of the KingCo Mountain Division title and beating Inglemoor for the KingCo District Tournament championship.
Earning a state trophy was on the team's mind since training camp.
"We wanted to bring back some hardware (trophy) from the st
The process proposed to update the Ballard/Crown Hill neighborhood plan, and 37 others across the city, won't be as in-depth as when the blueprints were originally conceived in the late 1990s, but city leaders vow there will still be plenty of neighborhood input.
Director of Seattle's Department of Planning and Development, Diane Sugimura, said since the current plans will be used as a framework, the time spent on revising or reviewing each plan can be scaled back substantially.
"We see this definitely as an update," Sugimura said.
Some community activists are
The day it snowed in Ballard this winter I found a soggy book across the street from Adams Elementary School. Inside the back cover was a notice from BookCrossing.com that began, "I'm not lost...I'm a wandering book!" and ended, "Books just wanna be free!" I had happened upon the secret world of books.
Since I started writing about Ballard on SeattlePI.com I have received consistently supportive on-line comments from a woman with the screen name MaryW, her icon flanked by a photograph of a white dog.
I'm not sure what the reason was, but I felt the need to donate blood after an absence of more than a decade.
Maybe it was the story in the news about the need for blood donations in Iraq having soared to more than 400 percent since that conflict began.
Or the small blurb I had read on a webpage recently about how every two seconds, someone in this country will need a blood transfusion.
I googled "blood donation, Federal Way," and the website for the Puget Sound Blood Center popped up.
Did you know that at least 900 people must donate blood through t
The magical road to a 4A State Championship may have come to an end for the Federal Way Eagles, but the journey - not the destination - will leave this young team with a lifetime of memories of one of the greatest underdog stories in Federal Way sports history.
Click here for a photo gallery by Federal Way News photographer Seth Bynum from the semi-final and championship games.
After a cosmetic facelift and a restructuring of its curriculum, the Norman Center YMCA will close its preschool program.
The facility will shut its doors April 1, signaling the end of a struggling preschool program the organization tried desperately to save.
The YMCA of Greater Seattle announced that it will restructure how it currently serves the Federal Way community.
Rather than continuing to operate the Federal Way Norman Center building, the YMCA will transition to providing services entirely through off-site programming.
"Even with our emphasi
The Decatur High School Concert Choir is spreading the news: the annual choir extravaganza scheduled for March 7 could propel them all the way to New York City in April for what may be the most prestigious high school choir competition in the nation.
The Concert Choir will travel to New York City April 5 and 6 to perform in the National Invitational Festival of Gold, the most exclusive competition held during the International Heritage Music Festival.
Nationwide, only 25 choirs are invited to compete in the Invitational Festival of Gold.
Community members can s
The juvenile suspect wanted in connection with the February 24 shooting on Military Road has turned himself, according to the Federal Way Police Department.
Detectives are now interviewing 16-year-old Deondre L McDougle regarding his involvement in the shooting that injured two other teens.
On February 24, at approximately 3:45 p.m., Federal Way officers were dispatched to the area of 288th and Military Rd South on a report of shots fired.
A passerby reported four to five gunshots and several juveniles running from the area in multiple directions.
Wh
Last week I described some of the parents that I have met while involved in education in Federal Way.
